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Friday's courtroom shooting in Atlanta gave urgency to Chief Lake Superior Court Judge John J. Pera's two-year campaign to ban all guns from Lake County's courts. "I'm very upset at what happened in Atlanta, and I'm afraid some day it could happen in my own courtroom," Pera said. The way that attack occurred should show Pera is right about wanting all guns -- even those owned by police officers -- to be surrendered at the door. In that violent eruption in Atlanta, Brian Nichols was on trial for rape and other charges when police said he fatally shot Georgia Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, his court reporter and a deputy sheriff during an escape from the Fulton County Courthouse. He also is accused of critically wounding another deputy sheriff and later killing an immigration agent and holding a woman hostage for hours before surrendering. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Monday that Nichols took deputy Cynthia Hall's gun from a lockbox, using her own keys. A courthouse surveillance camera recorded the attack on Hall, but no one in the control center noticed, the newspaper reported. A better system for locking up guns is clearly needed. They need to be locked up where criminals have no possibility of access to them. And security monitors need to be monitored closely. [more] and [more]

Evandale Police Officer Loses Gun In Courthouse Restroom [more]
WHAT? “You wouldn't even know he was black when he answered the phone, that's how professional he sounded,” Brian Nichols’ brother said on Larry King Live about his brother. [more]